Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at Computer World asks himself when he first started using Linux after attending the Linux Foundation Summit where several others were asked the same question. The Linux Foundation has posted a video of some of the answers; boy, do I feel young.

I got an Asus 900 netbook for Christmas, and quickly realized the operating system on it was garbage. I've had many different personal computers, spending most time on Windows but a lot of time at work on Apple systems (I have about 15 years graphic design experience).
Started looking at lots of different Linux distros, downloading maybe 15 or 20 and trying them out. If my WiFi didn't work, I moved on pretty quickly. Fedora and Eeebuntu work best on my netbook for someone new to this. All the hardware works on the netbook. I have both Fedora and Eeebuntu installed on 8 Gb SD cards and switch back and forth. And I have to tell you, I love them both. Keep my files on the 4Gb internal SD. Worst feature for the new user - basic formats like mp3 don't work and I had to search for the solution (found it). Best feature - Stability. The systems just do not crash at all no matter what I do with them. Fedora seems to be slower than Eeebuntu, but Fedora has the better software and is more up to date. Love Amarok (better than iTunes), & FBReader. Scribus is too much like Quark XPress for my tastes. I prefer the PageMaker/InDesign style page layout programs. GIMP is good enough for what I'm doing on the netbook, but is still no PhotoShop.

So to the new-to-Linux person, I say Go for it! I can't remember having this much fun with a computer since my Commodore 64. And most of what the average person needs is there.

To the Linux developers, I say please make it easier for us to switch. I'm sure lots of people, when they can't play their 23,873 .mp3 files, just go back to Win without looking any further.

This said, I am really looking forward to xpud ( www.xpud.org ) actually becoming a usable system. I like the way it works. It's one of the few that I've encountered that really felt different than Win or Apple.